Qinglei Meng
19 December 2008
Abstract
Direct observations of vortex structure only appear recently; in this essay we will examine these
first observations. And then introduce experiments and theory about the dynamics of vortex core;
meanwhile we will propose the principle of chirality conservation in vortex; and with this idea
we present another explanation in Bussmanns experimental results. Finally, reveal the high
possible application of vortex in MRAM.
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Introduction:
For ferromagnetic materials, they will form magnetic domains to reduce the energy. Naturally, a
wall will appear between two domains which have different directions of magnetization.
Generally, there are two types of domain wall: Bloch wall and Neel wall.
(a) (b)
Figure 1: domain wall. (a) Neel wall: magnetization vector must be in-plane. (b) Bloch wall:
magnetization vector can be out-plane. [1]
Neel wall will replace the Bloch wall if the thickness of the sample is small, especially in the
case of ferromagnetic films. An interesting phenomenon will occur when two Neel walls cross
with each other. Magnetic vortex will come out in the intersection of Neel wall!
(a) (b)
Figure 2: magnetic vortex. (a) magnetic vortex at the intersection of Neel walls. (b) magnetic vortex. [2]
Obviously, crossing two Neel walls is not the only way to generate magnetic vortex; there also
exists magnetic vortex in circular dot of ferromagnetic materials [5], when the dot thickness is
much smaller than the dot diameter. This unique property of magnetic vortex yields several
interesting application. One of them is data storage application [3]. Due to the dipole-free
configuration, this magic structure will prevent cross-talk among adjacent vortices, and thus have
high magnetic stability.
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Furthermore, more interesting phenomenon will exhibit at the center of the magnetic vortex.
Figure 3: Schematic of a vortex core. Far away from the vortex core the magnetization continuously curls
around the center with the orientation in the surface plane. In the center of the core the magnetization is
perpendicular to the plane (highlighted). [4]
Out of core the direction of spin is in plane; however, in the core the direction of spin will turn
out, not in plane!
Direct observation:
Although, the structure of magnetic vortex core has been predicted long before in theory, the
experimental observation only appear recently [5][4]. Due to highly developed nanotechnology,
we can now prepare samples in nano-scale. One experiment among the first observations of
magnetic vortex core is just done in the circular dots of Permalloy, (Shinjo, 2000) which was
prepared under the help of nanotechnology.
In Shinjos experiment, they use magnetic force microscopy (MFM) to detect the core of the
magnetic vortex. As the core has perpendicular magnetization, while the magnetization vector
out of the core parallel the plane, thus, the force between the cantilever tip and the surface of the
core is different from the force between the cantilever tip and the surface of out-of-core. Their
results as follows:
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Figure 4: MFM image of an array of permalloy dots 1um in diameter and 50 nm thick. [5]
These images show clearly contrasted spot at the center of each dot. The authors of this
experiment believe that this suggests each dot has a magnetic vortex structure and contrasted
spot is just the core of the magnetic vortex; white and dark spots are believed to have opposite
direction of magnetization.
Clearly, the ground state of this circular dot is degenerate. The out-of-core can have either
clockwise or anti-clockwise curling configuration; meanwhile the core can also either have up or
down magnetization direction. Their combination yields four different ground states but
energetically equivalent.
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Figure 5: four generate states. (a), (b): right-hand chirality. (c), (d): left-hand chirality. (a), (d): positive
helicity. (b), (c): negative helicity.
However, external magnetic field will break this symmetry. One interesting question is what will
happen if one applies an external magnetic field along the plane normal. Definitely, the
magnetization in core will be aligned along the external magnetic field, thus parallel to the plane
normal. But, how about the curling structure out-of-core i.e. the helicity?(definition of helicity is
shown in Figure 5)
As showed in Figure 3, not just the central one has normal component magnetization but also
ones near centre have non-zero normal component magnetization. Possible process as following:
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When applying normal magnetic field, (assuming initial direction of magnetization of central one
is opposite to the field) at first, the direction of magnetization of central one wont change at low
strength field due to exchange coupling between adjacent ones; and the whole dot will be in a
sub-stable state. As the strength of field increasing, the external field energy of the central one
will be finally equal to the exchange coupling energy; then at this critical point the direction of
the magnetization of the central one will reverse, and the adjacent ones will reverse, too. Finally,
the direction of magnetization of all ones at the dot will reverse at this critical point, like physics
transition.
In this process, helicity will change sign; however, chirality is conserved.(definition of chirality
is in Figure 5) We will discuss a little more about this in the Application part of this essay.
In Shinjos experiment, they use a relative high magnetic field (1.5T) to align the magnetization
of all the cores along the external field.
Due to the limitation of MFM method, Shinjos experiment cannot give the internal spin
structure of magnetic vortex and the size of the core. Fortunately, the problem encountered by
MFM method can be resolved by the method of spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy
(SP-STM). (Wachowiak, 2002) [4]
The principle of SP-STM can be interpreted in the following formula:
The angle in this formula represents the angle between the directions of tip magnetization and
the sample magnetization, C, P
T
, P
S
can be recognized as constant. Thus, this method can be
used to determine the spin (magnetization) direction of the sample by measuring
dI
dU
signals.
The primary results of this experiment as following:
Figure 6: magnetic dI/dU maps as measured with an (A) in-plane and an (B) out-of-plane sensitive Cr tip.
The curling in-plane magnetization around the vortex core is recognizable in (A), and the perpendicular
magnetization of the vortex core at a distance of 19 nm [circle in (A)]. (D) dI/dU signal along the lines in
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(A) and (B). The measurement parameters were (A) I=0.6 nA, 0
0
=-300mV and (B) I=1.0 nA,
0
0
=-350mV.[4]
The core size determined by this experiment is 9 nm. We will refer to this result in Application
part of this essay.
Dynamics of Vortex Core:
So far, experimental evidences have confirmed the existence of magnetic vortex and vortex core.
In this part of essay, we will examine the dynamic property of vortex core.
We first consider the situation when applying an in-plane magnetic field, i.e. the direction of the
external magnetic field parallel to the plane of dots. This experiment has been done by
Schneider, 2000.
Figure 7: (a) Magnetization reversal in applied fields B
Ip
for nanodisks of diameter 340, 440, and 530
nm, respectively. Decreasing the applied field from saturation leads first in about half of the area of the
structure to a deviation of the magnetization direction from the direction of the applied field. Field
reversal shifts the vortex center to the disk border where it is annihilated at higher field values. (b)
Schematic drawing of the vortices at remanent state and in an applied magnetic field. (c) Values of the
saturation and nucleation fields B
S
and B
N